Is it detrimental to vary anchor text too much?

[defanjos]

Most people recommend that when acquiring links one should vary the anchor text a lot. But, it that really natural?
For example, if a site sells "widgets", is it natural to have links with many different modifiers like, unique, pretty, cheap, affordable, trendy, modern, fun, red, blue, etc.

There must be a point when it becomes unnatural, and could potentially hurt you. What do you think?

[daveshap]

It's more detrimental to have the same anchor text multiple times than it is to different anchor text. You could use 3 and 4 word terms in your anchor text to try to help rank for many terms.

For example, the term 'long red widgets sale' will help rank for the following terms:

long red widgets sale
long red widgets
red widgets
red widgets sale
widgets sale

By combining primary keywords in your anchor text (have a few that just say 'red widgets') with more long tail terms you will get a good variation of keywords while still ranking well for your primary keywords without looking overly spammy.